1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multifunction peripheral (MFP) having a function of saving document data such as image data and others.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when distributing material to plural places or people, in many cases, a distributor prints sufficient material for people to whom the material is distributed and sends the printed material to each place or person by post. In the case of distributing material from a government office to each local authority or to each school, for example, the required number of material is prepared by copying or other ways to be sent to each destination by post. On this occasion, the whole material prepared for a predetermined period of time (for one or several days, for example) is often mailed at the same time in order to save expenditure on mailing.
However, people or places to which material is distributed are not always the same and are different depending on contents or purpose of material. Accordingly, a work is required of printing material and sorting the printed material according to each person or place to which the material is distributed, which is a substantial burden for a worker. Additionally, it is also required to ensure a space used only for keeping the printed material thus sorted, such as a document box.
Requests concerning print conditions of printed material differ for each person or place to which material is distributed. In recent years, especially, since a printing device has plural functions of, for example, color printing, change in resolution, 2-in-1 printing, double-sided printing, a staple process, a punch process and others, various requests are made depending on the number of combinations of the functions.
There are proposed methods described in Japanese unexamined patent publication Nos. 2003-84941, 11-242571, 2003-94774 and 2001-125761. According to the method described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2003-84941, since plural jobs in a box can be coupled together, a burden of sorting imposed on a worker can be reduced.
According to the method described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 11-242571, a resetting of print mode is performed and printing can be carried out using the style of the reset print mode. The method described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2003-94774 enables printing in various types of print modes. According to the method described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2001-125761, a printer suitable for a print attribute of print data can be selected from plural printers for printing. Accordingly, it is possible to print material satisfying each request of people or places to which the material is distributed.
In the method described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 1003-84941, however, it is impossible to comply with requests regarding print conditions, the requests being made by people to whom material is distributed. In the methods described in Japanese unexamined patent publication Nos. 11-242571, 2003-94774 and 2001-125761, various types of printed material are provided for the same one piece of material, which increases a burden imposed on a worker who sorts the printed material compared to conventional methods.